Torn From The Front Page: Retread 'Hire Michigan First' bills unlikely to get traction in Lansing

“Hire Michigan First” has real popular appeal as a Democratic Party battle cry to give new jobs in Michigan to Michiganders.

But the package of 12 bills recycled from previous legislative attempts rings hollow when given just a slight, inquisitive rap.

Introduced into a state Capitol dominated by Republicans in the House, Senate and the governor’s office, the Hire Michigan First package is more fulfillment of campaign pledges to create jobs than it is likely to put many Michiganders back to work.

Rather than spin their wheels in a snowdrift of Republican opposition, our local legislators should be getting traction in cooperative efforts with the majority Republicans on education, health care, poverty, revenue sharing for local governments and rebuilding our roads. Those topics are Democratic Party terra firma, and concentrated in areas where Republicans might be willing to negotiate compromises.

But tell Michigan companies who they may hire?

We can see Republican heels digging in already.

In broad strokes, the bills aim to award tax incentives to companies that hire Michigan workers, and deduct that state taxpayer aid if companies use the incentive to hire people from outside Michigan.

Bay City’s Rep. Charles M. Brunner’s bill in the package would amend the Industrial Redevelopment Bond Act to say that municipalities could not issue bonds unless applicants for the aid say in writing that they will make a good-faith effort to hire Michigan residents. The bill also prohibits companies working on bond projects from hiring illegal workers.

Flint’s Rep. Woodrow Stanley’s bill allows the Michigan Department of Management and Budget to ban a company from bidding on a state contract if it has hired illegal workers or violated the state’s prevailing wage law.

Saginaw’s Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes is one of the co-sponsors of the bills.

It’s hard to see how this legislation would change much for Michigan workers.

But it’s easy to discern that our local legislators are staking out our hard-hit I-75 industrial corridor of Michigan as a region where businesses that might create new jobs can expect government antagonism.

Of particular worry is that these bills attempt to wall Michigan jobs off from the rest of the country. And invite repercussions in other states for Michigan businesses seeking to make money outside our state, and bring their fortunes home.

Last June, we saw a Hire Michigan First television ad that will go down in infamy. Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Andy Dillon, then House speaker, it was revealed, had hired a Chicago company to make the ad. In all fairness, it’s fairly common for political candidates running for governor to seek the help of companies and consultants from outside the state.

And for all the talk about punishing businesses that hire illegal workers, it’s all just jabber until state and federal authorities enforce laws already on the books. Federal law requires workers to be U.S. citizens or have the proper documents allowing them to work here.

In all, the message that unemployed and underemployed workers hear from the re-rollout of the Hire Michigan First bills is encouraging.

But it’s a doomed, Charge of the Light Brigade in a familiar, protectionist direction. It’s a chapter out of the standard Democratic Party “we’re for workers” playbook, of a type that supporters of Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero would recognize from his failed run for the governor’s office.

Voters in November gave their judgment on the policies of the past when they instead cast Michigan’s lot with Republican Rick Snyder. They liked what they hear in Snyder’s talk of reinventing Michigan, of exploring new ways of doing business in the Great Lakes State.

Our Democratic Party legislators can fight against that tide of change with retread ideas. But we warrant they’d find more success for Michiganders by adding their party’s seasoning to the reinvent-Michigan stew now cooking in Lansing.